So had everyone. It was in The Hacienda club during the heady Madchester days of 1991 and Bez was king of the 24-hour party people.

Since then, however, the Happy Mondays star has ditched his maracas and transformed his life.

He is now a beekeeper, has no possessions and lives on “shared land” (when I call it a commune he says he hates the term because it makes him sound like a hippy).

Oh, and he’s just announced he is planning to stand as an MP in his hometown of Salford at the next general election.

But apparently some things never change.

“Any chance you can pick me up from me mate’s house in Whalley Range?”, Bez asks me on the phone.

“I kipped there last night and I can’t wake anyone up to give me a lift into town. I’ve tried waking me mate but he’s out the game.”

Mover and shaker: Playing with the Mondays (Photo: Getty)

I had been warned by a colleague that Bez is not always an early riser. When I pull up outside the home in Manchester, Bez knocks on a first-floor window and gestures that he’ll be down in a minute.

Then one of his pals – still wearing pyjamas – nips out to tell me the star will be out shortly.

I begin to get the sense this is not going to be your average interview. A few minutes later we settle down in a nearby organic cafe.

Bez – real name Mark Berry – orders Russian tea and a slice of blueberry cake. So, are his legendary booze benders and drugs binges a thing of the past?

He says: “I am still into partying and I still use recreational drugs. But that doesn’t make me a bad person. I’m honest enough to say it and I’ve got absolutely no skeletons in my cupboard. I don’t do evil.”

Bez adds: “I’ve never voted in my life. I’ve never felt able to put my pen to a ballot paper because there was nobody I believed I could vote for. They were all working for the bankers. There was nobody for the people.”

Activist: On fracking demo (Photo: Getty)

His foray into politics was prompted by his opposition to fracking. He has been at a test drilling site at Barton Moss near Salford, protesting against the controversial method of shale gas extraction.

Between bites of cake, he explains: “It is about our future, our children, our grandchildren. Imagine if your grandchildren came to you and said ‘Mum, why didn’t you do anything about it?’. Imagine the horror you would feel.”

The energy companies are not the only ones in Bez’s bad books as he turns his attention to food manufacture.

He says he is promoting a “perma-cultural lifestyle” which seems to involve growing your own organic fruit and veg so you have a job as well as food.

Bez, 49, adds: “You don’t need money for everything. There are people starving on the streets, and there are food banks. It is ridiculous.

“People have got to take responsibility back for themselves and start feeding themselves. I’ve started one on the top of the Printworks building in Manchester city centre. I’ve got a wild flower garden up there, chickens, beehives, and fruit and veg.

“These are the ideas I am promoting. Every office block in the city could be growing their own organic fruit and veg, keeping bees.”

Swiftly changing direction, he has another kind of bee in his bonnet – bankers and bonuses.

So what does he plan to do about the issue? Well, it’s a bit of a mystery.

“I have got great ideas on the banking system but I have been told to keep them close to my chest. The banking system is one of the biggest evils to walk the planet and it’s one of the evils I intend to end.

“I’ve got plans and I know how to do it. I know how to set up a whole economic system without them being in charge.”

He says he wants to alter the “social conditioning” we have all been subjected to, adding it’s all about “changing people’s reality”.

Apparently, “people will then understand the power they have over the conscious universe”.

In the words of the Happy Mondays, all this is twisting my melons, man.

He admits that being a member of the Happy Mondays – he is the indie band’s dancer – is the reason why he is able to spread these ideas.

Bez says: “If I wasn’t in the Mondays I wouldn’t be in the position to do what I am doing now. I love it. I have found new love for it now. I have found purpose for life.”

He won Celebrity Big Brother in 2005 so he has proved he can get people to vote for him. But does that mean he has a chance in politics?

For a start off, his approach will be different – he will ask voters what they think before he decides his policies.

“I don’t see any other politicians sat down in the pub in their local community, finding out what their issues are,” he says.

“I’m going to try and make a difference, and if that is a crime, then I am committing a crime of love. I love our city and the place we live and I want to do something to protect it. I feel passionate about what I’m doing, and I see the politicians doing absolutely nothing.”

If Bez’s policy of love wins Salford over, how will he fit in at Parliament?

“I am not looking forward to coming face to face with full-on evil,” he admits. “But I have no fear. I will face them down.

“They have set up a system that will allow me to get into their playground and start taking them on.

“I’m going to call myself the Reality Party, I’m going to promote reality. Being an MP is not something I ever planned on doing. I said it in jest at first. But now the issues have become that important and I’ve got to use what I have in my toolbox to prevent what is happening.

“The main parties aren’t offering anything different. They are all banging along on the same f***ing dire path. That path is not working. My path is the path of the heart, truth and knowledge.”